This week, Musk is looking to advance his effort with space exploration even further with the second flight of the Falcon 9-R (F9R) reusable rocket. During yesterday’s test flight, the F9R launched to a height of 3,280 feet, hovered in place, then performed a controlled landing back to earth.

It’s worth noting that in this early stage of development, the landing legs of the F9R are permanently fixed to the bottom of the rocket during all phases of the flight. However, it is hoped that as development progresses, the landing legs will stowed at launch and only extend as the F9R makes its “final approach.”

You can watch the video below:

In slightly related news, Musk made it clear that he wants SpaceX to handle all of NASA’s human “ferry” missions to and from the ISS instead of the U.S. having to rely on Russia. After NASA’s decision to break most ties with Russia on space-related missions, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin joked that NASA should simply use a large trampoline to reach the ISS.

Never one to back down from a challenge, Musk tweeted:

Sounds like this might be a good time to unveil the new Dragon Mk 2 spaceship that @SpaceX has been working on w @NASA. No trampoline needed

That's the beauty of the Dragon - it isn't government funded! Yes, SpaceX is accepting government money to ensure that it is being developed to specs NASA is okay with; but Musk has committed to creating it even if NASA doesn't use it.

Previous updates claimed it would be ready to launch manned missions by 2014 without going through NASA's process; but they are making a point of going through NASA's process so that it will be able to be used to go to ISS. That has delayed the craft.

It wouldn't surprise me if the May 29 "Dragon 2" announcement was that they have a non-NASA-process-approved flight version ready to go. That if NASA would be willing to speed up their approval process, they could launch to ISS immediately.

I'm all for SpaceX succeeding and all, but let's not get carried away in our statements. SpaceX is most certainly, or at least partially, government funded. Their Dragon rocket program might still continue without gov't contracts, but at a greatly reduced pace.

I'm a big fan of space x, but they would still be at the design phase of falcon 1 without government support.

They got access to a lot of confidential NASA design info and work from TRW in the design of the merlin engine - hundreds of millions of costs worth of research and development for free.

The 1.6 billion from COTS is space x's main revenue stream and it certainly was appropriated in a similar way to how lockmart and Boeing get their cash (e.g. they both competed for the f35 and lockmart won - they now get to sell the f35 round the world).

Now that they have received a few billion from the government they now have a product that works commercially.

This is good government spending - money given in open competition to the best product - which then goes on to generate lots more revenue for the country (in tax). Its a bit disengenous to say that this has been done without government support.

quote: Certainly NASA is our largest customer and our most important customer, but if you look at our launch manifest we have over thirty Falcon 9 missions under contract, thirteen of those are with NASA, so effectively we've got about 40% or so of our business with the government. Let's say you made pencils, well, about 40% of your business would be with the government. That's not an unreasonable number.

Me too. I can't wait to see the crewed Dragon capsule flying. If we were smart we'd put that option on the front burner and tell the Russkies to pound sand. Sadly though we probably won't do it... makes too much sense. :-/

Even more impressive is the recent CRS-3 mission. They got Dragon into space to resupply the ISS, as expected, but also got the first stage also was able to make a soft landing on water.

Unfortunately it got shredded by stormy seas, but they got a lot of data showing that it hit water vertically near zero velocity . That's a HUGE first for a rocket used to launch something into space, and it paves the way for a controlled landing on land within a year.

Before SpaceX it used to cost $10,000+/kg to get stuff into space. They're already disrupting the market by offering $4000/kg with the Falcon 9 v1.1. If they can pull off rocket reuse? It could be down near $1000/kg in a few years.

This is an incredible advance in transportation cost. To put it into perspective, imagine if a company started leasing cars for zero down, $50/mo.

I'd take him over Reclaimer any day. One of them is a self-aggrandizing jerk who builds revolutionary rockets, and the other is just a plain jerk with nothing better to do than make an ass out himself 100 times a day on Anandtech.

I bet if Reclaimer spent the time he spends on here on something useful, he could change the world too! Instead he just brings it down.....

You're posting in a thread about one of the biggest breakthroughs in rocket technology.. to personally attack the CEO because you don't like his attitude. One day you should seriously re-evaluate your thought process.

Life is not a popularity contest. You should be thankful for this; look at your comment ratings.

quote: Certainly NASA is our largest customer and our most important customer, but if you look at our launch manifest we have over thirty Falcon 9 missions under contract, thirteen of those are with NASA, so effectively we've got about 40% or so of our business with the government. Let's say you made pencils, well, about 40% of your business would be with the government. That's not an unreasonable number.

I have a hard time believing a drag chute would weigh more than the fuel required to slow down the rocket for the entire time it's descending. Remember, we're talking about a chute to slow the craft down a little, not slow it down enough to land softly without any reverse thrust.

At first, I was also confused by the lack of a drag chute in the way you mentioned.

But remember how much heat and stress the space shuttle endured on reentry from orbital speeds. It was basically using its wing like parachute, and had to use very expensive ceramics to get the job done.

I think there's no choice but to slow down the rocket stage before it gets back into the atmosphere where a parachute would work, because otherwise the rocket engines would get damaged. Once reentry is successful, terminal velocity is slow enough that parachutes really don't save you much fuel.

quote: It still seems to me using a flyable parachute for part of the descent would save a ton of fuel weight...

Not so much if your aim is to turn the thing around and fly again as soon as possible, just like commercial aircraft. I could see some value in a small drogue chute to help stabilize and insure a tail down attitude, but I could easily be wrong about even that. Obviously Musk's engineers think so.

quote: Kind of like NASA's canceled plan for the space station emergency escape capsule.

...it was a lifting body, not a ballistic capsule. But being purely a rescue system, turnaround-to-reflight time was not an issue (this would matter for DreamChaser, another lifting body), and lifting bodies tend to land pretty 'hot' compared to most winged vehicles. X-38's parafoil could get it to the ground almost anywhere, with little forward motion. Most any good, open spot would suffice. There's no necessity to wait for a descent window to an airfield that could handle it, and that's also important for a craft that only has to get a few people (including possible injured) down from orbit, ASAP.

Between fighting the uncompeted launch contract to ULA, to the Tesla car, to the launch/reusability capabilities SpaceX continues to demonstrate...I have a hard time finding a better candidate for Time Magazine Person of the Year.

I saw that recently (the TED talks). Truly amazing stuff. But I will have to disagree. Yes, he is doing something absolutely amazing for the human race. But it's still a very small handful of people being helped and an even smaller amount of those people will change the world or help it make it truly better.

What Musk with SpaceX and Tesla is doing is helping the entire population almost. He's pushing the envelope of technology much faster then it was. The dreams he will inspire, the overall effect is much much larger.